NH Phone Jamming Points to White House

[mod mom]

Phone-Jamming Records Point to White House


By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer
Mon Apr 10, 4:55 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White House and Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records introduced in criminal court show.


The records show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 — as the phone jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down.

The national Republican Party, which paid millions in legal bills to defend Tobin, says the contacts involved routine election business and that it was "preposterous" to suggest the calls involved phone jamming.

The Justice Department has secured three convictions in the case but hasn't accused any White House or national Republican officials of wrongdoing, nor made any allegations suggesting party officials outside New Hampshire were involved. The phone records of calls to the White House were exhibits in Tobin's trial but prosecutors did not make them part of their case.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060410/ap_on_go_pr_wh/election_phone_jamming

[0007]

1. Too bad that justice can't be a swifter

:redbox:A GOP campaign consultant in 2002, Jayne Millerick, made a 17-minute call to the White House on Election Day, but said in an interview she did not recall the subject. Millerick, who later became the New Hampshire GOP chairwoman, said in an interview she did not learn of the jamming until after the election.

:redbox:A Democratic analysis of phone records introduced at Tobin's criminal trial show he made 115 outgoing calls — mostly to the same number in the White House political affairs office — between Sept. 17 and Nov. 22, 2002. Two dozen of the calls were made from 9:28 a.m. the day before the election through 2:17 a.m. the night after the voting.

[Land Shark]

2. Query: Isn't the defense being offered also a crime?

that is, all the calls to the white house for "routine campaign" reasons constitute using govt office for campaign purposes? Sorry to say I know state legislators in my state can't do that, nor can the executive branch, but I'm unsure of the rule as to the white house.

[EFerrari]

3. They were all over Al Gore for making a few fund raising

phone calls -- do you remember that?

Of course it's a crime. But since there are no rules in the White House, no one will do or say anything.

[electropop]

6. Great point!

[Maraya1969]

4. They were making calls to a Democratic "get out the vote" center

Repeated hang-up calls that jammed telephone lines at a Democratic get-out-the-vote center occurred in a Senate race in which Republican John Sununu defeated Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, 51 percent to 46 percent, on Nov. 5, 2002.

Besides the conviction of Tobin, the Republicans' New England regional director, prosecutors negotiated two plea bargains: one with a New Hampshire Republican Party official and another with the owner of a telemarketing firm involved in the scheme. The owner of the subcontractor firm whose employees made the hang-up calls is under indictment.

[Maraya1969]

5. I am beginning to think the Republicans couldn't win anything without

some type of fixing or unethical behavior. I don't know how they can live with themselves.